Cozying up in front of "Breathless"

Blue sky, crispy air, squirrels hopping around and birds chirping - no obvious signs of a disastrous storm just the day before. Looking more closely, there are trees lying around with root balls dangling over gaping holes; many households - over 40,000 - are still without power. We got lucky: survived the storm with uninterrupted power and gas supply; our roof also endured the storm without leaking on us, although dozens of shingles got blown off.

Late Saturday morning, we were aware of our fortune of having power and heat on a winter day. Michael made crepes; and along with crepes, we cozied up and watched a French film, Breathless, by Jean-Luc Godard. It was shot in 1960, and later became one of the most influential movies made during the French New Wave period. Since modern movies have absorbed many of the new editing techniques (e.g. jump cuts) and theories (e.g. "auteur theory") that the New Wave movies championed, as a modern viewer, I can't quite fully comprehend the revolutionary impact that this movie had on movies and directors of his time.

Like many other movies, this one deals with human existence, death, love and betrayal - subject matters of movies of all times. The plot is fairly simple: Jean-Paul Belmondo, a heartthrob French actor, played a thief who fell in love with an American girl who sold newspapers in Paris. The thief, Michel, killed a cop. From then on, he was on the run from the police. When betrayed by his American girlfriend, he didn't choose to flee from the police. The last scene was a protracted scene of him running away from the policemen who shot him, but it seems to me that he was trying to run away from his imminent death, or his love (maybe) not worthy of dying for. That was left ambiguous.

Actually, one thing that does strike me as something special is the way the movie portrayed the main character. The movie didn't portray, Michel, a thief as an evil person; instead, the movie presented an amoral picture of his being, his emotions and his philosophy of life. That seems to be a new exploratory concept rising out of the given historical period - reconstruction and rebuild after WWII. The director grew up during war times when the Axis armies were fight against the Allied Forces, the evil vs. the good. As a challenge to the black-and-white way of view of the world, an amoral portrayal of a real human being strikes a different cord blurring the moral lines.

On a different, yet related note, comments about American and French cultural differences in different scenes and conversations were an interesting reflection of the interactions that these two nations experienced during the after-war rebuild period. It appears to me America was a symbol of strength and independence, a word used a few times at different scenes in this movie.

There was a sweet sense of humor and naughtiness that added to our cozy ride throughout the movie. Even the seemingly painful ending was endearing. Admittedly, with 21th century viewers' lenses, I wasn't awed by the plot or the highly-praised revolutionary editing techniques used in this movie.

Merry Merida, Felize Belize – embracing sunshine and sandy beach

The local weather channel must be awfully busy this winter: first, incessant rain, then snow storm, then ice, now windstorms and thunder showers. I hope our roof can hold up - some shingles have been blown off. This winter is all about drama and extremities, and far from its normal pattern of being mild, drizzly and cloudy. Somehow, this seems to coincide with what’s been going on at my workplace – a series of unexpected personnel changes and departures. Maybe the crazy weather had a hand in this?!

The night falls early here in December, and on December 21st, we’ll have the longest night of the year. With trees dressed up in twinkling lights and other glowing ornaments hanging every where, every twinkle sets off the drabness hanging over the city under imminent rain clouds, and gives me comfort, knowing that we are gearing up for the biggest and longest holidays of the year. Yesterday, on my way to work, I saw a huge full rainbow erecting across the skyline over the harbor and downtown. It was an exhilarating sight! Yet, an evanescent display of a spectacular rainbow can’t hold me back from a two-week long vacation in a zone of sunshine and sandal-friendly space!

Our annual southern getaway trip is in a week. I’m counting days and hours. We’ll be staying in Merida for a couple of days, and then head off to Belize for a few days. Belize has long been known as one of the best diving destinations in the world. My original plan of becoming a diver has failed. Snorkeling would do for me, at least, for now. I’ll record my first imaginary tour of Belize in my next blog entry.

The wind is howling and shaking trees vehemently outside our cozy house; Some neighborhoods have experienced power outages. Tomorrow, school closures are expected; treacherous commuting to work is forewarned. The whole city will slow down - a pace that we'll truly get to enjoy once we are on vacation!

Wintry thoughts, wintry memories

Isn’t weather one of people’s favorite topics? It seems like initiating a conversation with asking about weather gives people extra comfort and time to actually think about what they really want to say without sounding too abrupt. And I don’t feel compelled to repudiate Seattle’s reputation as a “rainy city” anymore. If I enjoy living in a city, the weather really becomes secondary to how I feel. But this November Seattle did really well in qualifying as "rainy city."

It’s official. Seattle just broke the record it set in 1933 by dumping 15.37 inches (vs. 15.33) of rain in November alone. That, of course, reinforces its fame as “rainy city.” 15.37 inches of precipitation is a lot; in fact, that’s close to half of the average precipitation of 38 inches Seattle gets annually. That’s actually lower than New York, Houston and many other cities in the nation. Besides rain, we also had the first snow of this year in November! The snow put a break on the whole city – no school, working from home, fewer cars, being stuck in the snow.... The city is not prepared (nor was it built) to handle heavy snowfalls. Like San Francisco, Seattle has many hills. A couple of hills were closed to traffic. Kids were having a blast sliding down those hills. A merely few days, everybody felt the impact of the snow. And now all the thrill and shrill in welcoming and hating the snow is all gone with melted snow.

I’ve experienced winter in different time zones and different terrain. When I was just a little girl roaming around in the Gobi desert area, I loved snow. Rolling around in the snow, sliding one the ice, having snowball fights - there was just too much fun out in the cold and in the snow. As one becomes older and starts to take on more responsibilities, one becomes more sensitive to weather changes. As adult, we worry about commuting to work, we worry about how to look wholesome in cold weather, we worry about power outage, etc., weather also often becomes a convenient excuse for people to feel certain ways - happy or lousy.

I lived in Shanghai for over seven years. My memories of winter there are often associated with being extremely cold. Well, there was no heat in the dorm or classrooms during my four years in college. I remember being all bundled up and holding a palm-heater while studying in chilly classrooms and libraries. I brought thermos filled with hot water and drank tea as the night went on. If I had a choice to choose a university in the South, would I? No. I chose the school because that’s the city that I wanted to be in. Those cold winter days and nights are full of bitter sweet memories. Now that I’ve got heating all over the house. It’s hard to re-live that whole episode again.

Chicago’s winter can be brutally cold. Commuting on buses sucked. I can still vividly remember my feet numbing away under me standing in darkened and harden snow waiting and waiting. But mountain-biking in the snow was quite fun. Obviously, snow and having to work is not a good combo.

Michael and I traveled for about a month in the winter of 2004 in Europe. Our first stop was Copenhagen. Copenhagen’s winter is very precious – or shall I say – the daylight is precious. We woke up around 9:30 or 10ish and had breakfast and got ready to go and explore the city, it was already dusky. A couple hours into wandering around the city, we were already totally enveloped in dark sky lit up by glittering lights everywhere. Tivoli probably looked even more enticing on a winter night around the Christmas time. People were biking around. Although cold, a lot of them were dressed very fashionably and having fun. Maybe because the daylight is short, people have come up with more creative ways of enjoying the wintry darkness.

Seattle’s winter is predictably unpredictable. You know it’s probably going to be cloudy, maybe with a bit of drizzle from time to time. But you don’t know when you’ll get pouring rain or even flurry snow. The culprit of the unpredictable part is probably global warming which, according to reports, will make Seattle’s summer hotter and winter wetter. And on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Shanghai was just reported to have had the hottest autumn in 55 years. Is it time we do something about the global warming?